Month: January 2021

2021 Dated Walt Disney World Pressed Coin Set

/ davidscointravels / 4 Comments

It’s the most magical time of the year….well sort of.  Thankfully this year Disney was able to release their new 2021 Dated pressed coins a little earlier than last year.  It’s a lot of work running all over property hunting for these new designs, but I’m always up for the challenge and enjoy every second of it.  Let’s jump right in and I’ll show you all the new designs and where you can find them on your next trip.

Usually these new designs start to show up right between Christmas and New Years so that’s when I started checking out all the usually locations as frequently as I could.

Sure enough I found the first one on December 27th at Disney Springs in the Pin Trader store.

 

I know this isn’t a pressed coins, but I still like to include it as part of the annual dated set.  It’s a Collectible Medallion (hint there are more to come) which I have really come to enjoy collecting.  The larger size of the coin allows for a more detailed image which I really like.  Unfortunately even though this design does have the new 2021 year on it, the rest of the designs is exactly the same as the 2020 version.  Hopefully next year they can work on completely redesigning it.  Fingers crossed!

Just a few days later I received a message from a friend and fellow collector Rob Wilson that he was visiting Hollywood Studios and found the first pressed penny.  I was excited to hear this news.  The only problem was that this time of year is very busy at the parks and getting a park reservation for arguably the most popular park at the time of writing this, I had to sit and wait for a few days before I could check it out.

Thankfully I was given very specific information on where this design was located as it wouldn’t not have been my first stop.  Just after you walk into Hollywood Studios there is faux Gas Station called Oscar’s Super Service.  This is actually where you would go to rent a wheelchair or electric scooter.

 

For a long as I can remember they have had a penny press inside this shop, but this is the first time that one of the dated designs was here.  This design is of the Hollywood Tower Hotel better knows as the Tower of Terror attraction.  This has become a common design each year and I still really like it.  Side note, also take a look at the machine and you may notice this has been updated to the new $1 per penny cost, and the machine supplies a shiny zinc penny.  Another interesting tidbit is that this is the only dated penny available in Hollywood Studios this year.  The penny design used to be in the Rock Around the Shop store but that 3-design machine was removed and replaced with an 8-design touch screen model (Stay tuned for a future post on this).  Then the pressed quarter design was at the Tower Hotel Gift shop, the machine is still available, and still $1.25 to press your quarter but there is no longer a dated design there.

Once I had finished walking all throughout the Studios park to ensure they didn’t release any other new designs, I hopped on the Skyliner to visit a resort.

Have I mentioned before how much I love the Skyliner?  It’s amazing and I don’t really like heights but it’s such a great way to get to and from some of the resorts and parks.  On this trip I ended up over at the Art of Animation resort.

 

In the main building of the resort there is a gift shop and food court which is where you can find the pressed penny machine.  This has been a fairly new location for the dated penny designs, and sure enough they continued this year with a new design.  This design is fantastic and I think it’s my favorite design for this year, just a little bit retro.

Next up we continued visiting resorts and headed over to the Polynesian Village Resort.  They are currently going through some major refurbishments at this resort currently with the monorail station being completely removed and eventually rebuilt, and some of the guest rooms will be converted to a Moana theme.

All this construction does make this resort not quite as amazing as it usually is, especially since ‘Ohana is not currently open.  But the gift shops and quick service locations are still open.  On the second floor is the Moana Mercantile for some grab an go items, and is also where the pressed penny machine is found.

 

 Last year this location also had a dated Minnie Mouse design, but thankfully this year even though Minnie has returned the design itself has been changed for this year.

I do kind of wish that this design had Minnie in her hula costume from down in the Lobby, but maybe next year.

Eventually the New Year did arrive and this was when the rest of the dated designs really started showing up.  I had seen on eBay two penny designs listed as being from Animal Kingdom which was out of the ordinary from previous years.  So I just had to visit every machine to see if that was the cases, and sure enough I found them.

First I headed over to Dinoland USA as this was where the dated design has been located the last few years.  As I passed by the Restaurantosaurus I found a friendly little guy making sure to keep his mask on, but looks like he may have picked up the wrong size.

The penny machine in this area can be found in Chester & Hester’s Dino Treasures.  It’s a pretty large gift shop over near all the carinal games.

 

The trend continued with this machine getting the new 2021 design with a really nice image of the Tree of Life.  Plus you can see this machine has fallen pray to the new price increase and you can no longer use your own pennies to press.

That was one penny down, now to try and find the next one.  I headed all around the park visiting each machine that I knew about and ended up back near the front of the Tree of Life at the Island Mercantile.  If you look at the above picture you can see the machine just to the left of the door which is on the side closest to the Pandora area of the park.

 

This machine is really amazing, and the wood carvings are so fun to look at.  The detail is amazing, and who doesn’t like the giant crab on top holding a penny.  Plus the little cup where the pressed coin drops out into is the mouth of a lion with some pretty intimidating teeth.  The 2021 design you can get at this machine has Pluto on it, and also now costs $1 to press.

With the two pennies found at Animal Kingdom it was time to visit the next park on our list EPCOT.  This park has been under quite a bit of construction this past year and finally some of those projects have started to end.  One of these is the front plaza just as you enter into the park.  They have brought back an amazing retro EPCOT fountain and this area is now so wide open and very beautiful.

The rest of Future World is still a bit of a mess and hopefully that will get better as 2021 continues.  Once you get past that area and into the World Showcase you need to look for the Disney Traders store.

 

This store has also been the home to an annual dated penny for quite a few years and that continues this year as well.  The design here is of Chip and Dale.

The second pressed penny is in a bit of a unique location.  In years past the second EPCOT dated design was found in the Mouse Gear gift shop back towards the front of the park.  But in 2020 when they gutted and began completely renovating the store the penny disappeared for quite a long time before reappear in the Norway Pavilion.

This is the gift shop you exit into if you take a ride on the Frozen Ever After attraction.

 

This is a really nice looking machine.  The art work on the cabinet is wonderful and I would assume Norwegian but that’s just a guess.  The design here is of Spaceship Earth and this is another design I really like for this new year.

Only one last place to visit and that’s my personal favorite park the Magic Kingdom.  But there are not just two dated designs here as in years past, but instead there is 12 pennies and 4 medallions.  So if you can only visit one park on your trip and want to get some 2021 dated designs this is the park to hit up.

 

The first machine is not too far inside the park and can be found just underneath the Main Street Railroad Station.  To be honest these are kind of hidden, but trust me it’s down there and just behind the double staircases that would take you up to the train platform.  This is a 4 design hand crank machine but all 4 designs have been swapped out for 2021 images including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Cinderella Castle in the style of the new Mickey Mouse cartoons currently running on Disney+.  I wasn’t a fan of this style at first, but those cartoons are so much fun it’s hard not to like them and I’ve eventually come around.

Just a little further down Main Street the final few machines are all inside the Emporium.

Due to all the social distancing the stores have specific doors that you have to enter and others for exiting only.  For the emporium you basically need to walk about half way down Main Street before you can enter, even though you pass about 4 other doors along the way.  That does however bring you into the store and right near the first machine located near the big wall of Disney Pins.

 

This was another interesting turn of events with having new 2021 dated designs in an 8-design penny machine.  Upon closer inspection the vendor of the machines made a brilliant design choice to have the dated designs on one of the die rings, and the 4 non-dated designs on the second die ring.  This allows them to change out the dated designs without disturbing the rest of the machine.  So even thought his machine has 8 designs in total only the 4 dated designs were changed out.  The images on the new pennies include Mickey & Minnie, Donald & Daisy, Chip & Dale and a second Cinderella Castle that looks identical to the one we just found at the Main Street Railroad Station.

 

The second machine inside the Emporium has their collectible medallions.  This machine was placed here in 2020 shortly after the parks reopened from being temporarily closed for Covid.  All 4 of the front designs are the same as before including Mickey & Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto.  It’s only the back image that was changed and has Cinderella Castle with 2021 on them.

 

Finally our last machine it back up towards the front of the Emporium as if you were heading towards the exit to the theme park.  This is another 8-design machine, but only the 4 dated designs were replaced.  The new images include Daisy Duck, Donald Duck, Pluto and a Pirate Ship (maybe Captain Hooks?).

 

Well that’s all of them and above are pictures of all the new 2021 dated pennies and medallions.  Now I will say that with a bit of trepidation as I was scored a bit last year.  Initially I thought we had found all the 2020 designs and then over the course of a few more week / months they released more and more designs.  So I guess I should say, for now these are all the designs.

Before we go I did have a few items to go over.  First you may be thinking, hey there aren’t any 2021 pressed quarters and you would be absolutely correct.  I’ve chatted with some fellow collectors and we think they will be a thing of the past.  The overall number of pressed quarter machines is very low at the moment and I do think they will eventually just be removed completely.  Not having dated designs on quarters just seems to be another sign of that eventually happening.  Next you may be questioning that we didn’t visit the All-Star resorts which have had dated designs the last few years.  That unfortunately is due to those resorts not currently being open, they were shut down for Covid last year and are not scheduled to reopen for another few months and even at that time I believe only one will be reopening.  I am anxious to get over there and check out the machines once they reopen and I’ll share all about what I find.  Will there be more new 2021 dated designs there?  Maybe, but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a few new 8-design machines there instead.  Only time will tell.

Thank you again for checking in and I hope this helps you with your collection or maybe even just as a checklist for which new pennies you collect throughout the year.  It is obviously early on in 2021 so there should be plenty of time to pick these up at the parks and resorts, but  remember what happened with that 2020 Spaceship earth penny that disappear and collectors were going nuts wondering if it would be back.  Get these before they are gone!

Stay tuned for a future post coming soon as our annual Contest will be happening where you have a chance to win a complete set of these dated coins.  Click here to see our past years winners.

Have a fantastic week and Keep on Pressing.

Wyndham Hotel Disney Springs Resort Blvd | Update

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A few years ago we took a penny pressing trip down the Disney Springs Hotel Plaza Boulevard visiting what they called the “Good Neighbor” hotels.  These are hotels that are not owned or run by Disney, but due to a special agreement those guests are allowed some of the special perks set aside for Disney resort guests.  In years past these hotels did not have a pressed penny machines, then what seems like all at once each of them received their own machine with Disney themed designs which you can read about here.

Then not too long ago some of these machines started disappearing during the Covid shutdown and at one point only one machine was still available at the Wyndham Hotel.  Some fellow collectors had reached out asking for an update on the machines down this boulevard so I took a day to do some exploring.

As with most of the Disney resorts they don’t allow parking at the hotels is you are not a guest, or if they do have public parking there would be a fee which I wanted to avoid.  So I parked for free at Disney Springs and then walked over the sky bridges towards the Good Neighbor resort area.

I certainly got my steps in on this day as it’s quite a walk up and down the boulevard, but as had been reported most of the penny machines had been removed.  That was except for at the Wyndham hotel.

As I headed inside this hotel I found the machine almost immediately as it was just in the middle of the main lobby.  On my previous visit to find this machine it was in the gift shop which you can read about here.

The penny designs were unchanged, but the cabinet of the machine had been repaired to a nice new coat of white paint.  Previously this has been painted red.  I will say it does seem to match better with where it’s located now in the lobby.  The Disney gift shop was closed and all markings were removed.  From information I found online Disney has decided to close all of their off-site gift shops in these good neighbor hotels.

Usually I would have just left after seeing this machine in the main lobby, but our friends over at Presscoins.com had posted that a second machine was here but in a location that was not so obvious.  Just past the check-in area were the elevators.

To find this second machine you need to take the elevator down to level “P” towards the pool.

Once inside the elevators, as the doors close there is a cool image of Galaxy’s Edge from Hollywood Studios.    I love that area of the park so this was a fun little piece of advertising.

When the elevator lets you on level “P” there is a long hallway that will take you towards the pool and the penny machine along the wall.

There is not much else down here, so it’s definitely a hidden location for a penny machine meant to attract guests.

Similar to the machine up in the main lobby, it has received a new coat of just plain white paint but I think it works in this area.

This machine and the designs were previously located in the Holiday Inn Orlando hotel also on the Disney Springs Resort Plaza Boulevard.  The designs are unchanged, but it’s nice to see that they were relocated so guests can still press them.

I do hope to find that the other machines that were removed from these hotels are just relocated at some time in the future.  I also feel that the placement of this machine is a bit strange, but I guess maybe they don’t anticipate many outside visitors coming to the hotel just to press some pennies (am I the only one?).  If you are staying at this hotel I’m sure you would visit the pool at some point and would pass by the machine so you would know about it.  Hopefully this will help you find the machine should you want to press a set for yourself.

Thanks for checking in this week, stay safe and Keep on Pressing!

Inauguration Day 2021 – Pressed Pennies

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January 20th, 2021 was host to the Inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America.  The event took place at the Capital Building in Washington, DC.

Biden took the Presidential oath of office, followed by Kamala Harris taking the Vice Presidential oath of office.  During this unique global situation we all find ourselves currently living in, the ceremony required certain health measures such as mandatory face covering, testing, temperature checks and social distancing to try and protect participants of the ceremony.

 

Above is a commemorative pressed penny.  Concept by Kelly Buchwald a TEC Member, then designs and pressed by Paul Connor Studios.  This was available to members of The Elongated Collectors Facebook page, and many other special elongated are frequently offered there so if you aren’t already a member hop on over there and join.  The Facebook group is free, and you technically don’t need to be a TEC member to join, but honestly you should join the club as well.

Congratulations Mr. President and Madame Vice President!

Gatorland Holiday Ho Ho Ho-Down | New Pressed Pennies

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We are a couple weeks into 2021 and I just realized that I completely forgot to write about my visit to Gatorland’s Holiday Ho Ho Ho-Down event.  Hopefully you won’t mind a quick trip back to the Holiday season for this post.

Only in Florida can you celebrate the Holiday season at a theme park filled with Alligators.  This is definitely a unique experience, but I had a whole lot of fun here.

When Gatorland first reopens after being closed due to the 2020 Florida Covid quarantine, they introduced a their Social Distancing Skunk Ape who immediately became a guest favorite.  For this even Skunk Ape is back and helping to spread cheer throughout the park by singing (in his own way) classic Holiday songs.

Another special visitor to the park for the Holidays was Gator Claus with his custom Airboat sled pulled by a mystical rein-gator.

Both were available for socially distanced pictures that would make for a unique Christmas card.

In the middle of one of the gator lagoons was a nicely decorated Christmas tree, but I wouldn’t get too close with those gators keeping an eye on it.

Even if you weren’t interested in the holiday festivities there were still plenty of other things to do, and more gators than you probably want near you.

This is one of the gutsiest birds I have ever seen, just tagging along for a slow ride along the water.  But the gators don’t seem to mind as lease while I was watching.

Some of these gators are just enormous.  Look at this one above, the picture just doesn’t do it justice but wow some of them are pretty intimidating.

On my very first visit to Gatorland a few years ago I wrote about the three pressed penny machines available and you can read all about it here.  These machines don’t change too often, so I was surprised to see a new machine on this visit.

The cabinet on this machine is the standard acrylic design, but the wrap and art work all around are great and obviously fit into theme of the park.  I really liked the top marquee of the machine with the gator eyes just watching you as you press your pennies.

This new set of penny designs are also fantastic.  The original machine that was here had some plain gator designs, but they have really stepped up the details and thought behind these new designs.  I love the first one which is the large gator mouth original entrance to the park.  Plus the gator wrester which is a must watch when visiting, the tortoise design is okay, and then the last design of the zip-line over the gator breeding marsh is great although a bit misleading as you don’t actually get that close to the gators.  But still a really nice set of pressed pennies.

Gatorland is a fun place to visit and I find myself there more often that I would have initially thought.  They are always changing things up and with new characters like Skunk Ape and Gator Claus I was just laughing at their antics which was amazing.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the new year, and will be keeping an eye on their pressed penny machines in hopes that we get even more new designs.  Be sure to stay out of those Florida Lakes and Keep on Pressing!

Sir Mickey’s Heroine NEW Pressed Penny Set – WDW Magic Kingdom

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I wish I could say that I’m pretty good at predicting when Disney is going to release a new pressed penny machine.  But more often that not I’m caught by surprise at not just the designs they release but also the location.  This exact situation just happened at the Sir Mickey’s gift shop at the Magic Kingdom.

This cute little shop is located behind Cinderella Castle, and is also where you exit after meeting some of the Princesses at the Fairytale Hall.  The items in the shop are primarily Princess and Prince oriented.  It’s themed around a couple classic Mickey Mouse cartoon The Brave Little Tailor from 1938 and Mickey and the Beanstalk from 1947.  I loved this cartoon as a kid and even thought I had visited this shop many times in the past I don’t think I realized all the details that were here.

Each corner of this shop has some fun scenes from the cartoons including the above of Mickey climbing up the beanstalk, and underneath all sorts of items from his Tailor shop.

Princess Minnie is in the opposite corner looking beautiful in her Purple dress.  This is a very popular photo location, but is worth the wait.

This is probably the biggest detail (literally) in this the store that I never noticed until this most recent visit.  It’s of the Giant taking the roof off the shop and peeking inside.  This is just so cool for them to have included.

So why did Disney catch me by surprise with this new pressed penny machine?  Well it’s primarily due to the machine that was previously here.  They used to have a 3-design electronic machine that has been home to one of the annual dated designs.  I assumed (incorrectly) that the dated designs would continue here, but that was not the case.

Voila, instead of just changing out the dated design the entire machine was swapped out and now was home to a new 8-design machine.

The machine is in the exactly same location within the store as the old machine.  The cabinet does have a nice wood grain design that I think would look very nice in any castle.

Unfortunately there were no 2021 designs in this set, but the pennies are still a fun collection of Princesses and Heroines including Cinderella, Elsa, Anna Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and even Tinker Bell is here.  To be honest I would have preferred to have a set more themed around this shop with Brave Little Tailor Mickey, Princess Minnie and of course the Giant plus there are plenty of other fun characters from the cartoons to include.  But I guess these Princess designs are probably more popular for the majority of guests.

So now my big question is, what happens to the new 2021 penny design that would have gone here?  All the other 3-design penny machines have recently been converted over to $1 and those designs have remained the same (upcoming post about this soon). I’m a little concerned that the dated set may be getting slimmed down a bit with these machines being changed around and also the pressed quarter machines seem to be on the way out.  But time will tell and I’ll be here to share all the details as soon as I know more.  Happy Collecting and Keep on Pressing!!